Seminole Tribe of Florida to acquire Mackinac Savings Bank

The Seminole Tribe of Florida wants to make its first foray into Florida banking, in part to help its underserved population.

The Hollywood-based tribe announced on Tuesday that it plans to acquire Boynton Beach-based Mackinac Savings Bank, subject to regulatory approval.

Mackinac Savings Bank, founded in 1994, has $111 million in assets and branches in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach. The bank also maintains lending offices in Auburn, Massachusetts and Farmington Hills, Michigan.

The acquisition is led by the the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s board of directors, which is the tribe’s business development arm. After the acquisition is completed in the first quarter of 2015, the tribe said it intends to rename Mackinac Savings Bank Seminole Bank. The tribe said the bank would continue to serve its core customers while expanding to offer personal and business banking services to many of the 4,000 members of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, as well as to Seminole Tribe employees, vendors, neighbors and others associated with the tribe.

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“Members of the Seminole Tribe have been historically underserved by most commercial banks in Florida and we plan to change that,” said Tony Sanchez Jr., president of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, in a statement. “Seminole Bank will attract customers in and around its existing branches and by reaching out to members of the Tribe living on or near the six Seminole Reservations in Florida.”

The Seminole Tribe of Florida will file applications for regulatory approval, which will propose the executive team of Seminole Bank to include Lynne Wines, who recently joined the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and will serve as president and CEO of Seminole Bank. Wines was most recently president and CEO of First Southern Bank, which was headquartered in Boca Raton.